Rabbi Mosbacher asked several of us to comment on one of the most thought provoking passages from the Torah.  I am honored to accept this challenge.
            The passage begins: “God spoke to Moses saying: Speak to the whole community of Israel, and say to them: You shall be holy, for I, the Eternal your God, am holy.”
            What does holiness mean?
            I can assure you it is not one of the questions that I or probably most of you think about regularly. Yet, in many ways it is in one form or another.  So many thoughts clogged my mind in attempting to assemble cogent thoughts.  I am in awe of people like Rabbi Mosbacker who can create such focused messages on difficult topics.
            I would like to address this question in personal terms of what I believe this command means as it relates to what one does with one’s life and how one addresses responsibilities in the world.
            I am not sure when I developed my strongest convictions about how I should try to live my life…it probably evolved from the teachings of my family, especially my father.  It was really the way he lived his life, what he did, how he related to family and community, and the importance he assigned to doing for family, friends, and community, learned by just being his son.
            First, let me step back to the passage and God.  I was brought up in a Conservative Jewish home and synagogue and was very active in United Synagogue Youth. I always had questions about God, why organized religion, etc.  I recall our first long discussions as a teenager about whether there is a God and what does God mean.  Out of this evolved my own view of what God is and as my own life’s experiences have continued, this has not changed.
            I do not expect that all of us share this view and I do not suggest that this is correct or what others should believe.
            God to me is very personal. It is an inner strength, a faith in oneself and fellow beings, and a moral compass that guides me.  God’s form is less important than the teachings and commandments.  This is the way we are to lead our life and this is the guide for what to do with our life and how to lead it. 
            I believe that God, in whatever form, is holy.  God’s commandments are holy; living God’s commandments is holy.  

            My father was a holy person.  I am not sure that he ever thought deeply about what form God took but he spoke God’s commandments through the passion that he felt for family and community.  He was a leader in the Jewish community, through synagogue and various community organizations because he believed that was how Judaism would be perpetuated and its teaching handed from generation to generation.  He spoke to the community and passed on God’s commandments.
            This was most vivid when my mother became ill.  His support for her during the earliest years was incredible until he could no longer do it; and when she was institutionalized, he spent virtually every waking hour with her.

            His love and devotion taught us what it meant to be holy.  His devotion and example spoke to the community and his God, in whatever form he believed God took.  It told him this was the way to lead his life.
            As my own adult life evolved, his example was my guide – from family and beyond- to strive for a more perfect world.
            I believe that God wanted us to pursue and contribute toward a more perfect world.  Defining that requires far far more time than we have now.  Suffice it to say what we do with our own life toward this end is holy.  Therefore, in overly simple terms if God is holy and we do God’s work, we are holy.  There is an obvious continuum, probably with my father and Mother Theresa at one end.
            These principles are in God’s teachings.  I think we can agree that God is not perfect, we are not perfect.  The world will never be perfect, but I have a trite expression that I am sure is used by many that I have always utilized in my family, with students, temple community, fellow workers, ie we strive for perfection. even if we never achieve it. It will make things better.  Maybe it is how I rationalize not doing as much of God’s work as I should.
            Rabbi’s reference earlier in Rosh Hashanah to Abraham Lincoln’s guiding principles expressed so well in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals so elegantly expressed Lincoln’s dogged pursuit of his highest standards of equality and dignity of people, importance of union (a whole community even of disparate philosophies).  There is a chapter that reflects maybe his most important principle.  He was under severe personal attack from some of his staunchest Union supporters for hosting his mourning sister-in-law, a Confederate, at his home, the White House, so that she could be with her sister, Mary Todd, following her husband’s death during battle.  He told them (Paraphrase) this is my family and my home.  This among his many good deeds speaks to the community as God commanded us.
            I believe that holiness starts with our own family and the work of our Temple family to serve and support and better the larger community.  By doing, we speak to the community.